Jon Gordon– Download MP3 – iTunes Social networks like Facebook are becoming a favorite target of the Internet scam artist. Just this week Twitter users were hit with several phishing attacks. Guest: Beth Jones, Sophos
Future Tense
MPR News Chronicling the social impact of technology
Archives for February 2010
Google has been famously protective of its super-secret search algorithm — that is, the computer code that translates our searches into relevant results we expect. But technology journalist Stephen Levy has gotten unprecedented access to the process Google employs to improve search. In Wired magazine he reports Google is set to make more than 500 changes to its search algorithm this year alone.
– Download MP3 – iTunes Many people have come to believe that a dictatorial regime cannot stand up to a citzenry with unfettered access to the Internet. The free and open exchange of information, this line of thinking goes, leads almost inevitably to a more democratic government. Belief in the power of the Internet to Read more →
Culture in the digital age is being created from the ground up, and just about anyone with a computer or smartphone can become a content-producing superstar, according to Bill Wasik, a senior editor at Harper’s magazine and author of the book Read more →
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week Microsoft unveiled its next generation mobile phone operating system. Scheduled to launch by the holiday season, Windows Phone 7 Series is a complete overhaul from previous Windows mobile phones and looks nothing like iPhones or Android phones.
Guest: Sascha Segan, PCMag.com
Filmmaker Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and other films, is vowing never to fly Southwest Airlines again after flight crew asked him to leave a plane on Saturday because he was too fat.
Southwest has apologized twice, but Smith has not relented. He’s complained loudly to his 1.6 million followers on Twitter, as well as on his Web site and podcast.
Guest: Caroline McCarthy, CNET
– Download MP3 – iTunes The Inferno — part of a 14th Century epic poem that describes Dante’s descent through nine circles of hell — is the raw material for the new Electronics Arts game. In the video game version of the tale Dante battles hellish demons to save the love of his life, Beatrice. Read more →
Data enthusiast Pete Warden, a former Apple engineer, has analyzed 210 million public Facebook profiles. Warden says the data show the U.S. is made up of seven distinct regions.